1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character input apparatus and an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing a recording medium, and particularly to a character input apparatus for inputting a plurality of kinds of character data and an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing a recording medium to which a plurality of kinds of character data can be inputted.
2. Background of the Invention
Character input apparatus capable of inputting character information are mounted on a variety of devices.
A recording and reproducing apparatus capable of recording and/or reproducing audio data on and/or from a magneto-optical disk serving as a recording medium has a character input apparatus for inputting character information such as the title of a piece of music and is able to record the inputted character information on a disk.
In a recording and reproducing apparatus using a magneto-optical disk, for example, a user can not only record audio data such as music on the magneto-optical disk and reproduce recorded audio data from the magneto-optical disk, but also record character information such as the title of the disk (title of album) and the title of the tune (track). Upon reproduction, the disk title, the title of the music, the name of the artist, etc., are displayed on a display unit of the apparatus.
A known character input apparatus includes a keyboard having a plurality of keys corresponding to characters that can be entered and is able to enter characters like a computer and a word processor. However, a character input apparatus for a small device or the above-mentioned recording and reproducing apparatus having keys for recording and reproducing mainly sounds, uses only a dial or up/down key as the operation means for selecting characters when character data are entered.
In such a case, the user has to turn the dial or operate the up/down key, i.e., operate the up/down key in the incremental or decremental direction, whereby respective characters can be sequentially selected accordingly.
However, according to the above-mentioned system, when there are many characters that can be entered, such as symbols, capital letters of an alphabet, small letters of an alphabet, numerals or katakana, the user has to endure a tedious effort and a lot of time for selecting characters that should be entered. Therefore, the above-mentioned character input apparatus is not convenient to use. Specifically, it is unavoidable that an amount in which the dial is rotated for selecting desired characters and the number of times in which the keys are pressed is increased.
The arrangement of characters should be set in order to enable characters to be selected by increment/decrement operation.
When capital letters of an alphabet, small letters of an alphabet, numerals, symbols and katakana can be entered, the arrangement order of characters should be set in such a way as in "A", "B", "C", . . . , "Z", "a", "b", "c", . . . , "z", "0", "1", "2", . . . , "9", "|", """, . . . , "#", "", "", "", . . . , "" (sonant mark)", " (semi-voiced sound mark)".
However, if characters are selected sequentially from "A" by increment operation each time one character is selected, the number of increment operation becomes extremely large. Even though the increment operation is carried out by turning a jog dial, for example, when the katakana characters of "" are inputted, characters are selected sequentially from "A" by increment operation in order to select "". Then, at the time "" is selected, the enter operation (input determination) is carried out. Then, characters are sequentially selected from "A" again by increment operation in order to select " (sonant mark)". At the time " (sonant mark)" is selected, the enter operation (input determination) is carried out. Further, characters are selected sequentially from "A" again by increment operation in order to select "". Then, at the time "", "" is selected, the enter operation (input determination) is carried out. Katakana characters "", "" are obtained in a similar manner.
As described above, the operation for selecting and entering characters becomes very complicated and takes a significant amount of time. Therefore, the above-mentioned input apparatus is not convenient to use.